AdobePhotoshop Every tool explained - phần 7 docx

You created text as a selection which could be filled with a colour in a layer or applied as a layer mask to create type that knocked out part of an image, or was itself filled with an i

Focusing in with Dodge and Burn

Dodge and Burn is a great way of focusing in

on the subject of an image, or even a new area

Faded paint

After using the Dodge, Burn or Sponge tools, you can used the Edit > Fade command to vary the intensity of the last stroke you painted.

Fade away

The Fade command actually works with most of the brush-based tools in Photoshop.You can often change the blending mode here

as well as the opacity.

Using Shadows mode is probably not

a good idea in this case because you would be changing the contrast balance between the subject and background in a more unnatural way.

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We can work on the background layer, (having made a copy of it) with the layer mask applied to protect the main leaf We’ll use the the Burn tool set to Highlight mode and a low opacity Keeping the brush strokes loose and slightly random, we can dampen the brightness of the surrounding leaves.

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We can force the image to have a subject by picking one of the leaves and then adjusting the rest using Dodge and Burn.

First we isolate the subject leaf by creating a mask for it using the Magnetic Lasso and then Quick Mask mode to touch up the edges.

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Here’s a good example of an image that has no focus It would work well as a texture or background, but the uniformity of the subject makes it difficult to pick out any one leaf as the main subject in the image.

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THE TYPE TOOL

IN PHOTOSHOP

T ype and text has numerous applications in Photoshop

You can create logos, web buttons, cool 3D text, even paragraphs of prose using the Type tool In earlier versions of the program, text was a very basic affair You created text as

a selection which could be filled with a colour in a layer or applied as

a layer mask to create type that knocked out part of an image, or was itself filled with an image or texture.

In Photoshop 7, text has become a fully-fledged feature, and the most important aspects of this are its Type Layers Like Adjustment Layers, Solid Fill and Gradient Layers, Type Layers are ‘live’ This means that the

In this chapter…

U s i n g t h e Ty p e t o o l

a n d Ty p e l a y e r s

C r e a t i n g t y p e e f f e c t s

w i t h L a y e r S t y l e s

Managing, transforming

and distorting type

Creating text in Photoshop is quite easy to do, whether it’s for artistic effect or simply to add essential information We’ll look at the various options available with the Type tool

text is created as real type just like in

a word processing program or vector illustration program The type can be edited, so that you can go back and change the font used, the colour applied or the properties of the text, such as scale, leading (line spacing) and kerning (letter spacing).

Quality assured

Type layers are produced using vector technology, just like in a vector-based tools such as Illustrator

or Freehand, and this has two very important consequences The first is that type is ‘resolution independent’ This means that you can scale, rotate, stretch and distort type layers

and they will never degrade It is the

vector paths that are altered, and the

rasterization is performed at the end.

You’ll always have crisp, clean type,

until the Photoshop document is

saved as a flattened image or printed.

Pixel perfect

The other consequence is that you

can, if you wish, decide to keep the

text as vectors if you print to a

postscript printer This means that

the type is printed at the highest

possible quality and is never

converted to pixels Even perfectly

rasterized type will print slightly

fuzzy at the edges This is because

of the necessary anti-aliasing that is

used in order to convert the flowing lines of the vector paths into the rows of square, coloured pixels in a normal image layer To be honest, printing type as true vectors is only important when producing the highest quality artwork for printing

on professional printers Because of this it only works when out-putting CMYK separations from Photoshop.

Note: Rasterization is the process of converting vectors and paths into

‘raster’ images, made up of pixels.

Once a type layer is rasterized it loses any of its special editable properties and becomes just an ordinary pixel-based layer.

Page 87 The Warp Text palette lets you distort your type any way you like

Page 84 Learn how to distort vector

text in later versions of Photoshop

Page 89 Use Layer Styles with live layers

to create rich and varied text effects

Page 82 Older versions created text as

selections Photoshop 7 is more flexible

Page 83 Type layers in Photoshop 6 and above can be edited at any time

Page 84 Get to grips with the idea of different kinds of anti-aliasing for text

The Type tool

Photoshop’s Type tool allows you to add impressive text and type effects to any image

Twice the size

If using an older version

of Photoshop without

vector text and you

need to transform

type, do so in a new

document that is

twice the size of the

destination document.

The higher resolution

will minimise the

degradation of the

text edges Resize

the image once the

transformation

is completed,

sharpening it

as necessary.

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Computer Arts.

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Furthermore, if you wanted to edit the mask, to make it smaller or larger, distort

it and so on, then the quality of the edge pixels will deteriorate even further After just a few transformations the edges become fuzzy.

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While this is fine, the text is not a vector object, so the edges of the type are not always as crisp and clean as they could be This is due to the anti-aliasing used to smooth non-straight edges of pixel-based images.

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The type selection could be filled with a flat colour, saved to a channel ready for some channel effects work, or as here applied

to an image layer, to create image-filled text.

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Previously, in releases of Photoshop earlier than version 6, text was created like this, as a selection You could type in your text in a panel, choose the font and other options but once created, that was it.

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Vectors and rasters

Though the type layers are vector-based, just like any vector program Photoshop has to rasterize them in order

to display them But this is an ongoing process.The type itself

is still stored internally

as a vector.

Rescaling with text

If you were to rescale a document containing a live Type Layer, the type would scale up correctly along with the pixel layers, but would not suffer any degradation.

Even after many transformations, the

type layer’s edges remain as crisp and

properly anti-aliased, as it was when the type

was first created You don’t have to worry

about the edge degrading when working with

type layers.

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Type created like this is ‘live’ You can

select the layer and make changes to

the text it contains, change the font, colour

and whatever else you like Transforming this

layer is possible using the Free Transform tool,

just as if it was a normal pixel layer.

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The Type Masks are just like those in

older versions of Photoshop, except

they are more easily edited while they are

being created Afterwards they are not

editable The normal Type tool creates type

as a special vector layer called a Type Layer.

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The vector text introduced in

Photoshop 6 is a whole different ball

game The Text tool, located in the eighth row

of the toolbar, contains four different tools.

Horizontal and Vertical Type, and Horizontal

and Vertical Type Masks.

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T he familiar Options bar in Photoshop 7 is home to the Type tool’s Options and Properties.

As with all tools the first entry at the top-left is the tool preset picker pop-up, from which you can select preset tool settings, or reset the tool

to default Next is the Horizontal/

Vertical Type toggle, followed by the Font drop-down menu, Font Style and Font Size drop-downs.

The next menu is the Anti-aliasing control This is an interesting feature because it enables you to change the edge anti-aliasing of your text on the

fly The options are None, Sharp, Crisp, Strong and Smooth and range from sharpest to smoothest.

Type Options

The Type tool’s Options bar is one of the most feature-packed in Photoshop

The Type Anti-aliasing feature controls how smooth the edges of your type is It’s more noticeable on small type that on larger type.

Cycling fonts

The Font field can be

scrolled through to view

alternative fonts, just like the

Font Size field Just place

your cursor in it and using

the Up/Down arrow keys.

Choose the typeface you

want to use for the selected

type from the Font menu.

Choose your paragraph alignment by clicking on the buttons in the Option bar or

in the paragraph panel.

A text layer is denoted by a large letter T in the layer preview The layer name is always the first few characters of the text.

The Character panel contains many of the properties found in the extra ones, such as Kerning, Leading and Scale.

Text can be warped using

the Warp Text panel This is

useful for creating many

special text effects.

Selected text is highlighted

in black The text colour is

inverted when selected,

so this type will be black

when deselected.

A WHISTLE - STOP TOUR OF YOUR T YPE TOOL OPTIONS

Type tool tips

Some practical tips and advice for getting

the most out of Photoshop’s Type tool

Quick resizing

You can increase or decrease the size of text by placing your cursor in the Size field and using the Up and Down arrows [Shift]+Up/Down moves the values in larger chunks.

Specify units

You can specify text size using any units you like Just place your chosen unit after the number value For example, 20cm is the same as 2362.2 pixels.

To set the kerning for your text, open the Character palette by clicking the palette icon in the Type tool’s Options There’s

a letter spacing pop-up menu, where you can choose your desired value Negative numbers offer tighter spacing.

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When creating headings and other large type, there is a simple rule that you can apply to get better results Basically, larger text such as headings – especially chunky bold fonts – can have much tighter kerning (letter spacing) than normal text.

Here’s the same word, one with much tighter letter spacing.

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You’ll notice that the drop-down list only goes up to 72-point text This is fine for most web page titles and such, but not nearly big enough for images destined for print If you want larger text, then you have to enter a value in the text field manually Here we’ve used 500-point text in a 1000x1000-pixel image.

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When you create text in a Type Layer, one of the main things you’ll want to do

is get the text the right size There are, as always, different ways to do this in Photoshop.

The most obvious is the Size menu in the Options Bar Open it up and choose a size.

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Type tool tips continued

Speedy selections

Select text by clicking

on it with the Text

tool Alternatively you

can select a type layer

and the text within it

by double-clicking the

Layer Preview icon.

Type tool options

The Type tool’s

shortcut is, surprise

surprise, the [T] key.

You can cycle through

each tool in the tool

ground by typing

[Shift]+[T].

Attempting to pan an image while text

is selected will result in this All your text will be replaced by a space If this happens just click the Cancel Current Edits button in the Option bar to retrieve your previous text as it appeared before you started editing it.

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The only safe way to navigate your document when in editing mode is to use the View menu or the [Ctrl]+[+/–] shortcut (that’s [Command]+[+/–] on a Mac) At least then you are able to zoom in and out of the image while text is selected.

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However, when you move your cursor far enough away from the text it turns into the Move tool automatically This at least gives you the option to move text around without leaving the text editing mode.

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Selecting text can be tricky, but once you get the hang of it you’ll be fine Once text has been created you can click on the tick in the Options bar to return to normal Photoshop operation While text is selected most of the key commands no longer work,

so be careful you don’t accidentally add unwanted characters.

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Using the Warp Text panel

Photoshop won’t let you warp text along

a path, but there are still plenty of Warp options

Be patient

Because Type Layers are vectors the distortion does not degrade the quality of the type However, large amounts of text will take longer to distort than a single character.

Extra text tools

Photoshop has Paragraph tools as well

as Character tools These can be found in the Paragraph palette, which is docked with the Character palette

by default.

Using nonsense fonts or symbols together with the Warp panel you can get some weird shapes and patterns It can be fun and – like all the best features – it takes some playing with.

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Warps can be subtle or pretty severe, depending how you set the sliders.

The Horizontal and Vertical sliders control a kind of perspective distortion of the type layer, making it appear to tilt towards or away from you on either axis.

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There is a Style pop-up menu, from which you can choose numerous distortion types This is a simple Arc Warp, set to Vertical mode.

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When you select a ‘live’ type layer, you can access the Warp Text panel by clicking its icon on the Options bar The panel opens and allows you to distort the selected type using some simple controls.

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B ecause type layers are vector-based you cannot apply pixel-based effects to them So you can’t use filters or paint on them directly, and you can’t apply adjustments to them to change their colour or brightness You can get around these problems by adding an adjustment layer above your type layer, but you’ll also need a mask if you only want the adjustment applied to the text and not to the layers below.

You can change the blending modes of type layers, which results

in some interesting type effects,

especially over image layers But

to really get stuck into text layers you’ll need to rasterize them.

Rasterizing type

In order to apply normal Photoshop effects

to type, you’ll need to rasterize it first

Flatten it

All non-pixel layers

can be rasterized in

Photoshop, using the

appropriate

commands in the

Layers menu.

One way to rasterize type

is to Choose the Layer >

Rasterize > Type command

from the main menu.

Another method is to load the type layer as a selection [Ctrl/Command]+click on the layer icon and create a new layer Fill this layer with colour using the type selection.

You can apply Layer Styles

to live type layers In this case there’s no need to rasterize them beforehand.

To rasterize a type layer, right-click on the layer’s name in the Layer Palette and choose Rasterize Layer.

If you want to keep the

type layer editable, you can

make a copy of the layer by

dragging it onto the New

Layer icon at the bottom of

the Layers palette.

If you try to do something

that requires the type layer to

be rasterized, Photoshop may

ask you if you wish to do this

first in a warning dialog.

R ASTERIZING YOUR T YPE L AYERS

Rasterized type layers act like bitmap layers, because that’s just what they are This type has been rasterized, blurred and adjusted with levels.